salt exit codes

[Deshke]

is there a reason why test.* returns False and exits with bash exit code 0 instead of 1 ?

~ # salt some-minion file.access  /var/run/reboot-required f; echo $?
<>:
    False
0

~ #  salt some-other-minion  file.access  /var/run/reboot-required f; echo $?
<>:
    True
0

[jfindlay]

Thanks for bringing this up, I believe the behavior you are seeing is the expected behavior. The command salt <minion> file.access is executed successfully in both cases, so the return value in both cases is 0, regardless of the result of the file.access function itself.

[Deshke]

hey, sorry. i would expect a different behavior, like if my test goes wrong, the return code should be 1 (http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/exitcodes.html) regardless if my salt command runs successfully.

salt <minion> file.file_exists /some/file/that/doesn't/exists ; echo $?
   False
0

salt <minion> file.file_exists /some/file/that/exists ; echo $?
   True
0

[jfindlay]

My reason for thinking a return of 0 was appropriate in this circumstance is that I am thinking of a return code as local to a system. Since salt runs successfully as intended on the master, it's return code would not be affected by the state of the remote minion. I admit that my reasoning on this is not very solid and am inclined to rather support your arguments.

A further consultation of the applicable standards as you have suggested is needed. I believe there is an issue somewhere about generally refactoring return statuses/return codes. I can't find it at the moment, but that ought to be referenced here.

[jfindlay]

Here it is: #7013.

[tjyang]

@jfindlay , thanks for the info on #7013. This bug should be classified above "Low Severity", IMO.